Technology giants discuss ICT
trends across classrooms and why the United Arabic Emirates (UAE) is leading. The complete
digitization of curricula and the integration of Microsoft's Kinect technology
are but a few emerging trends global technology giants expect to see manifest
in Middle East classrooms.

Information
and communication technology (ICT) in education was the basis for last week's
BETT Middle East exhibition in Abu Dhabi, where Gulf News caught up with
officials from Hewlett Packard (HP) and Microsoft to discuss forthcoming trends
in education.

"From
discussions I've had I think we will see an increase of the digitization of
course content with more curricula and books being stored in clouds", said
Antoine Barre, vice-president of HP Personal Systems Group for Middle East and
Africa. "A second trend I see is ICT will no longer be placed next to or
complementary to educational pedagogy but instead emerge within it as the two
merge together".

He said
course content will develop in a way that will allow for the integration of
multimedia technology in order to facilitate student understanding, an example
of which could be the ability for students to simulate complete chemistry
experiments on their computing devices.

"A
third trend I see is increased mobility as students will have their educational
data available to them everywhere through any type of device, laptop, tablet or
smartphone", he said. "I think this will enable students to be more
efficient in how they find answers to whatever questions they have in life … as
I think this goes beyond the scope of academic training".

Azza Al
Shinnawy, Public Sector Education Lead at Microsoft, said educational
institutions in the UAE, whether schools or universities, are indeed expanding
their scope of ICT into education. "The
[ICT] expansion is happening at various levels depending on the leeway of
freedoms, but the wave is coming at different strengths in both the public and
private education sectors", she said.

"Students
are probably the most ready and exposed as we talk ICT outside education, but
they are in the best position to absorb what comes up in the classroom". She added,
however, that although some teachers are ready to embrace the ICT wave, more
effort still needs to be exerted when it comes to teacher training. "Traditional
teaching methods need to converge with 21st century teaching and learning".
Both Microsoft and HP are working closely with the Abu Dhabi Education Council
with regard to teacher training and other initiatives.

Almost everyone in this village
in central India has a complaint. Electricity comes only three hours a day. The
road has potholes. Widows’ pensions arrive late. The school lunch program often
runs low on food.

Villagers say they send letters,
call a government complaint line and wait outside officials’ offices for help,
but never get a response. “All our complaints go into a blind well of the
government”, said Mukesh Chandravanshi, 30, a farmer.

Now a simple cellphone
text-messaging program is providing a more direct line of communication between
villagers and the government. Developed by activists, local officials and an
information technology company, the system ensures that complaints are
immediately acknowledged and that residents regularly receive updates on how
and when their problems will be resolved.

Launched in two districts in two
states, the system decreases the chances that a problem will be ignored by
holding officials accountable, according to its developers. Such technology
does not guarantee a solution, but it can transform the relationship between
citizens and the government in a bloated bureaucracy beset with corruption and apathy,
analysts say.

“Everybody’s
pocket in the village has a mobile phone nowadays. If we can turn this into a
direct pipeline to the government, we will have the power to complain and be
heard”, Shafique Khan, a field coordinator for the program, called Samadhan, or
resolution, said as he demonstrated how to use it to villagers sitting under a
tamarind tree.

Through
Samadhan, people can go to a Web site to see where most problems and delays
occur and assess the performance of officials in those areas. The data can be
used to identify systemic bottlenecks in the government’s delivery of services.

This month,
the program — which was supported by the U.N. Millennium Development Goals
campaign — has received 530 complaints through text messages, such as “my water
handpump is not working”, “health worker is absent” and “the village bridge has
collapsed in the rain”.

Citizens
groups and IT companies are increasingly using crowdsourcing technology to help
make the government more efficient, empower people and even mobilize protesters. The ubiquitous
cellphone, with about 750 million users in India, and open-source Internet
platforms are being deployed to ensure that trash is picked up on time, to
track bribes and to help people learn English, find jobs and report incidents
of sexual harassment on the streets.

The ICT Ministry,
through the Directorate of ICT ownership, will participate with their
strategy, "en TIC confío", in
the twelfth edition Expotecnología Expociencia-2011 to be held in
Bogotá between 18 and 23 October. This initiative promotes safe and
responsible use of ICT, as well as zero tolerance to child
pornography and other forms of child abuse in social networks.

Through “I trust
in ICT”, the ICT Ministry through its Digital Experience Plan seeks
to promote the use of ICT, and zero tolerance for child pornography,
sex tourism.

To do so, they will
have different reporting platforms such as website, interactive
lectures for the education community around the country, social
networking, music and cultural events for the community in general.

"The Living
Digital Plan has also a component of safe and responsible use of ICT.
Through this initiative we will combat child pornography and child
abuse in the network. We will be absolutely relentless in the
protection of minors on the web", said ICT Minister Diego Molano
Vega.

"I trust in
ICT" (en TIC confío) will have a stand located in Hall 6 of
Corferias in the Expociencia, the attendees will learn about the
goals and objectives of the strategy, interacting with various
technological devices such as tablets, computers and video games, and
share their experiences regarding the use of ICT.

For new and more
updates on this strategy, visit www.mintic.gov.co, virtual
communities and the hashtag in twitter: # EnTICconfio.

His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday
stressed the importance of ICT tools in improving the quality of
healthcare services.

Referring to the e-Health Programme
“Hakeem” launched at Prince Hamzah Public Hospital on Friday, the
King credited the successful implementation of the programme in part
to Jordan’s broadband capacity.

He also acknowledged the support of
Cisco Systems, noting that the company first came to Jordan in 2002
to help the Kingdom improve its education sector.

His Majesty made the remarks during a
special roundtable session on the sidelines of the World Economic
Forum meeting to inaugurate the first healthcare ICT taskforce, with
the participation of Cisco executives and experts from local ICT
companies.

Addressing the participants, King
Abdullah noted that forming a healthcare ICT taskforce would help in
empowering Jordan’s ICT companies and promoting them locally,
regionally and internationally, in addition to providing job
opportunities for Jordanians, and promoting and strengthening the
country’s health services

Speaking at the opening of the session,
Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers noted that the ICT sector in
Jordan is witnessing impressive growth, pointing out that the number
of ICT companies in the country grew from 20 in 2003 to 450 this
year.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Tahboub, chairman
of the Information Technology Association of Jordan-inj@j, noted that
the taskforce will be focused on achieving multiple objectives,
including rapidly replicating the Hakeem programme nationwide and
positioning Jordan as a regional hub for ICT solutions in the
healthcare sector.

The Healthcare ICT task force is an
initiative of int@j, the King Abdullah Fund for Development, Cisco,
and local partners.

Also at the roundtable session, the
King presented Chambers with Al Hussein Decoration for Distinguished
Contribution of the First Degree in recognition of his efforts to
strengthen Jordan’s education and ICT sectors.

The first School of
Public Policy makers of Broadband in Latin America, organized by the
Economic Commission (CEPAL) with the support of the World Bank, meets
in the agency's headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

Deputy Executive
Secretary of CEPAL, Antonio Prado, considered the event to be held
until Thursday, will contribute to the creation of an independent
regional broadband market and, that will allow the expansion of
information and communications technology.

The meeting was attended
by national policy makers on the issue of Argentina, Chile, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.

According to the
Regional Centre for Broadband, between April 2010 and April of this
year there was a significant improvement in the availability of the
Internet service, since the price was reduced on average 37% of one
megabyte per second.

However, the service
rate remains almost five times higher in Latin America and the
Caribbean, compared with the average price of industrialized
countries.

10,000 young people invited to
join the global debate at ITU Telecom World 2011 and imagine the
innovations that could make a real difference.

ITU is calling on
schoolchildren across the world to join
a global metaconference
at ITU
Telecom World 2011
(24-27 October, Geneva, Switzerland) on how technology can be
harnessed to solve socio-economic problems and accelerate progress
toward the Millennium Development Goals.

Students and teachers are encouraged to sign up
their schools or classes and send in their ideas, prototypes and
innovations in areas where technology could be harnessed to:

alleviate poverty and hunger

improve education

address gender inequality

make sure everyone has access to health care

protect our environment

improve the lives of disabled people

close the gap between the developed and
developing world

Students are asked to consider
burning questions such as how can we close the gap between rich and
poor? How can we make
disabled people’s lives easier?
Or how can we improve
education for all?
Ideas and prototypes will be shown to the more than 5,000 influential
delegates expected to attend the event, including Heads of
State/Heads of Government, industry CEOs, technology gurus, digital
innovators and delegations from students’ home countries.

As well as the chance to influence key ICT
decision makers, taking part in the metaconference can provide
teachers and students with a valuable real-world context in core
curriculum areas such as history, geography and mathematics.

Ideas will also form a key part of the ITU
Telecom World 2011 Manifesto for a Connected World, a collaborative
vision that will be developed out of the event focused on how
connected technologies can make citizens happier, healthier, safer
and smarter.

Those unable to attend in person will be able
to follow the action as it unfolds from wherever they are in the
world via live video streams. They will also be encouraged to network
and share ideas beforehand, participate remotely in workshops and
feed into key discussions as they take place.

“Children are our future and
deserve the opportunity to have their voices heard. We’re delighted
that the power of technology will enable children everywhere to join
the discussion and share ideas and innovations alongside global
leaders”, said Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General.

Technology can be used to
spur business growth in developing countries, a UN agency says. The
Internet, computers and mobile phones facilitate banking services and
improve access to market information.

Information and communication
technology (ICT) enables private sector growth in developing
countries, according to report published Wednesday by the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The African ICT sector is
growing rapidly. Last year, there were close to 500 million mobile
phone subscribers. But there are wide disparities across the African
continent. In 2010, less than one in 10 Ethiopians had a mobile phone
compared to more than seven in 10 Ghanaians, according to the
International Telecommunications Union. This year, Ghana was
reclassified by the World Bank as a lower middle income economy.

Despite Ghana's high mobile
phone usage, ICT has yet to make a substantial contribution to the
country's private sector development, according to the World Bank. It
estimates 80 percent of the business sector is informal.

"The IT revolution [in
Africa] is enabling smaller farmers to have access to information
which they didn't have earlier, but not much has changed for larger
companies," said Sebastian Kahlfeld, a senior fund manager at
DWS Investments, Deutsche Bank's investment arm.

Mobile phones in particular
are enabling access to services like banking and information,
according Sebastien Dessus, the World Bank's lead economist for
Ghana. "In theory, [ICT] can play a role in enlarging markets
because access to information improves and transaction costs are
reduced," he noted.

Farmers now use mobile phones
to obtain market information on the latest prices for their crops. In
Ghana, cashew nut farmers can use a phone application to compare
trader bid prices. And since 2008, the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange
has granted farmers access to real-time information via text
messages, electronic display boards and a website.

Kenya's mobile banking
system, M-Pesa is bringing banking services to millions. The service
has 20,000 agents in the country compared to 400 for the largest
bank, according to UNCTAD ICT analysis chief Tobjoern Fredriksson.

Apart from providing banking
services, ICT has also helped create employment for thousands since
it was launched in 2007. The service, which was developed for
person-to-person transactions, is now being used by small
entrepreneurs to carry out payments, Fredriksson said.

But technology is not
only good for enlarging the market and empowering small-scale
businesses, it can also be used to fight corruption, according to
UNCTAD. ICT improves transparency and accountability, said Johan
Hellstroem, a researcher at Swedish Program for ICT in Developing
Regions. "The very presence of mobile phones decreases
corruption and secret activities because it leaves footprints and
audit trails", he added.

Corruption is third leading
constraint to doing business in a country after electricity and tax
rates, according to a 2010 World Bank survey.

Crowdsourcing techniques like
Kenya's Ushahidi can be used to report incidents of bribes or
corruption. Similar initiatives are springing up all over Africa;
with stopthebribe in Nigeria, and No bakshish in Cameroon. Through
such initiatives and global ones like bribespot and corruption
tracker, ICT is empowering people to take a stance against
corruption, according to Transparency International (TI).

In line with the Declaration of the
Alma-Ata in 1978 which highlights health as the most important
“world-wide social good” and the United Nations 2000 Declaration
of the Millennium Development Goals, Nigeria has been striving to
harness its resources to achieve efficient and functional healthcare
for its people.

Specifically, the National Primary
Healthcare Development Agency, an agency under the Health Ministry in
Nigeria responsible for development and strengthening of primary
healthcare nationwide, was formed to support the promotion and
sustainability of high quality primary healthcare system and achieve
the Millennium Development Goals relating to the health sector.

Alongside efforts by the World Health
Organization and the various UN agencies that deal with
health-related issues to improve the healthcare delivery system,
concerted efforts are being made to reduce the differential access to
technology of the developed and the developing world.

It is at the convergence of health and
technology that eHealth initiatives evolved, creating an
unprecedented opportunity to improve access to services and
innovations. So what is the way out? Enter the mobile health
(mHealth) initiative.

Stakeholders at a recent mobile health
(mHealth) workshop put together by MTN Nigeria, voted in favor of
adoption of the mobile healthcare system. Already, a United Nations
report notes that this system has capacity to help meet four of the
eight Millennium Development Goals, MDGs. Basically, mHealth broadly
encompasses the use of mobile telecommunications devices and
multimedia technologies as they are integrated within increasingly
mobile and wireless healthcare delivery system.

In order words, it is the practice of
medical and public healthcare supported by a mobile device, including
the use of voice, data and SMS. By adopting mHealth in the healthcare
delivery system, many more people, will potentially be reached and
the health of the people and communities will be greatly enhanced.

This approach is particularly important
due to the rapid adoption of mobile phone technology in developing
countries. While mHealth has matured in industrialised nations, the
field is still evolving in a developing country such as Nigeria. But
argument for it is strong. As mobile technology grows, more and more
people acquire mobile phones and other mobile devices, making them
part of their everyday lives.

It then becomes easier for medical
personnel to interact with them and provide health services, obtain
health information to aid their researches and make it easy for them
to provide the right medical solutions to health challenges in remote
locations.

The Report shows that the potential of
leveraging information and communication technologies (ICTs) to
develop the private sector is far from fully exploited. It finds that
many national and donor strategies related to PSD currently fail to
take adequate account of the ICT potential, which has greatly
expanded thanks to changes in the global ICT landscape. The Report
then makes policy recommendations on how to remedy this situation.

The Information Economy Report 2011 identifies
four facets of the ICT-PSD interface and argues that policy
interventions should take into account this holistic approach.

ICT infrastructure as a factor in the investment climate.

ICT
use as a factor to improve the performance of the private sector.

The
ICT producing sector as a strategic component of the private sector.

ICT use as a component of interventions aimed at facilitating PSD.

In these areas, UNCTAD makes several policy
recommendations, such as:

To take a comprehensive and systematic approach when integrating the
ICT dimension into PSD strategies in developing countries.

To
continue to extend affordable and relevant connectivity to locations
with poor ICT infrastructure.

To
adopt regulatory frameworks aiming to improve confidence in the use
of technologies and their applications.

To
include ICT modules in business skills´ training programmes.

To
harness mobile money services to meet the needs of MSEs and to make
financial markets more inclusive.

To
use ICT tools to reduce the cost of doing business, and to help MSEs
bring goods and services to domestic and international markets.

To develop Donor Guidelines to ensure that the ICT potential is
fully harnessed in their PSD strategies.

The Information Economy
Report 2011
explores various options and examples of interventions by national
governments and their development partners related to the four facets
of the interface between ICTs and PSD. Among
the cases cited are:

Customs automation in Madagascar and Liberia and reforms to
streamline business registration procedures in the Philippines, as a
means to provide a more conducive business environment.

Programmes
to increase the number and quality of entrepreneurial and ICT skills
in Egypt, Singapore, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Panama as a means to
promote the development of human resources.

Regulating
and promoting the development of mobile money applications in
Africa, as a means to enhance financial inclusiveness and open up
business opportunities for micro- and small enterprises.

The
case of ICT freelancers in Bangladesh, as an example of existing
opportunities to find low-skilled employment in the ICT producing
sector.

The use of ICTs to support women entrepreneurs in developing
countries, as a means to overcome the existing gender gap in
available digital opportunities.

In the Statistical Annex of the Report UNCTAD
presents among other things new data on ICT use by enterprises of
different size and in various industries.

Timor-Leste, a small South
East Asian country that gained its independence from Portugal in 1975
only to be occupied by Indonesia until the late 1990s, is one of many
smaller islands in South East Asia facing issues of poverty and, at
times, famine. The United Nations Integrated Mission in
Timor-Leste released a report on its 2010 survey of media in
Timor-Leste this June. The survey looks at demographics, the
reach of various media, mobile phone and internet use, as well as the
effectiveness of various communication strategies and who is not
using media at all in Timor-Leste.

As a country with 9 different
languages identified as being commonly used, communication strategies
need to vary from district to district. The survey shows that
nation-wide, the language most commonly considered a respondent’s
mother tongue is Mambae, with 24%, while three others – Makasae,
Tetum, and Kemak are accounting for at least 10%. Despite this,
Tetum and Indonesian are identified as the two languages most used by
the literate population to read and Tetum is the language that most
respondents indicate they can speak well.

Mobile phones are also of
growing importance to ICT and development in Timor-Leste. The
survey shows that since 2006, mobile phone ownership has grown by 600
percent, making it the fastest growing communications tool in
Timor-Leste. Although radio is still the highest reaching form
of media and 16 percent of the population is still without access to
any form of media, the use of text messaging for promotions and
campaigns is growing in popularity around the country. The
greatest barriers to use going forward are the cost of mobile phone
services and simply the cost of purchasing a mobile phone.
These barriers, at least at face value, seem much easier to break
than issues of lack of knowledge or lack of coverage in an area.

Minister of Welfare,
Women and Family Development of Malaysia
Datuk Fatimah Abdullah yesterday challenged those in the industry to
create products that are user-friendly to both the able and disabled.

“We must remember
that it is not people’s ‘disability’ that makes it impossible
for them to use certain technologies”.

“It is the fact
that whoever created the products and services did not take into
account the notion that people are individuals with differing
abilities and preferences”, she said in her keynote address at the
launching of a web accessibility seminar. Fatimah said it is vital
that those who design, build, sell and use online information
services or products must understand the impacts on disabled and
older people.

She stated that the Malaysian
Disability Act 2008 has made it mandatory for the government and
providers of information and communication technology to make their
systems accessible to the disabled without any additional costs.

“Our focus here is
website accessibility. The federal and state governments have made
web accessibility as one of the mandatory criteria in government
portals and websites”, she added.

According to her, the state government
has a web template that complies with the web accessibility
requirements to benefit a wider range of citizens.

The three-day seminar is held to
highlight the importance of making websites accessible to people with
visual disabilities.

It is organised by the state
government, Sarawak Society for the Blind, Sarawak Information
Systems Sdn Bhd (Sains) and National Council for the Blind Malaysia
(NCBM).

“My message to all those who have
registered for the workshop, learn as much as possible and develop
your websites, services or products that are usable by all.

“I hope the
organisers, especially Sains being the ICT total solution provider of
the state government, can work closely with my ministry to promote
web accessibility at national and international levels in the
future”, she said.

"This year’s
International Day of Rural Women falls at a time of heightened awareness of the
important contribution women are making to social progress.[...] I call on all
partners to recognize the contribution of rural women to our world, and to help
them do even more for our shared future", said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The first
International Day of Rural Women was observed on 15 October 2008. This new
international day, established by the General Assembly in its resolution 62/136
of 18 December 2007, recognizes “the critical role and contribution of rural
women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural
development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty”.

Rural women
play a critical role in the rural economies of both developed and developing
countries. In most parts of the developing world they participate in crop
production and livestock care, provide food, water and fuel for their families,
and engage in off-farm activities to diversify their families’ livelihoods. In
addition, they carry out vital functions in caring for children, older persons
and the sick.

The theme
for the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (27
February – 9 March, 2012) is: "The empowerment of rural women and their
role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges".

The National Strategy
"Women Have Rights", which leads the Ministry of
Information and Communications Technologies (MINTIC), the
Presidential Office for Equality for Women, the Presidential Agency
for Social Action and International Cooperation with the support of
the Integral Program Against Gender Violence Fund of the United
Nations and Spain for the achievement of Millennium Development
Goals, aims to help to reduce all forms of violence against women and
especially against women in situations of displacement.

In its first phase "Women
Have Rights" has been proposed change processes for the State
and society and take the new legal environment (Law 1257 and Order
092 from 2008) as an opportunity to move towards a life free of
violence against women, clearly establishing responsibilities and
protocols of care for women victims of gender violence and
displacement.

This meeting will allow,
through socialization of experiences of mayors, governors and
organizations, that officially have joined to the strategy, joint
actions between the different territories and the national level,
setting goals and challenges to the process of territorial
sustainability of the strategy in the light of the election of new
departmental and municipal governments and define the guidelines for
the construction of the Action Plan 2012.

Also, on October 14
has been set to perform with the participants of the workshop the
meeting of Spokespersons of the Act 1257, developed by the Ministry
of ICT in agreement with the Foundation Women, Art and Life (MAVI) in
different regions of the country.

This
workshop which is implemented with the video transformation
methodology for the appropriation of the law by public officers,
media and various organizations so, will become spokespeople for
their achievements in various scenarios.

The Minister of
Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, has promised to
facilitate the development of ICT infrastructure in the country to
increase the number of internet users in Nigeria to 70 million by
2015. The number of internet users in the country currently stands at
33.5 million.

Mrs. Johnson, according to
a statement from the ministry at the weekend, said that the ministry
would accelerate the roll-out of broadband infrastructure to increase
broadband penetration from 6% to 12% by 2015.

She emphasized that
the ministry will promote and support initiatives that will increase
the contribution of ICT from its current 3.5% to 5% of GDP by 2015.
(The Indian ICT sector recognized globally currently contributes 6%
to the nation's GDP).

She added that the
ministry will promote software development and local software
innovation by setting up ICT Parks/Digital Havens (equipped with
physical/service infrastructure; proximity and access to skilled
human capital etc.) and promoting investment in skills required to
drive the industry.

She said that the
ministry will bridge the internal digital divide in the country by
increasing access to ICTs in rural areas and amongst marginalized
groups and segments of the population.

The minister emphasized
that the ministry will ensure that there is increased adoption of ICT
by the Nigerian population by initiating programmes that allow
businesses and citizens to access government Information via ICTs.

"Now
mobile phone ownership is perhaps 30% of households and cell phone coverage is
widespread", said Sachs, director of the United Nations Millennium
Villages Project, which focuses on improving 14 rural villages across 10
African countries as a model for wider prosperity in the region.

The advent
of the mobile society may have brought convenience and a cultural
sea change to the U.S. and Europe, but in the poorest regions of the world,
affordable mobile phone access has caused a quantum leap in services -- like
calling for medical help, sending a quick letter to loved ones or starting a
savings account -- that Americans and Europeans have taken for granted for
generations, analysts say.

"The
cell phone is the single most transformative technology for development",
said Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of
the 2005 book "The End of Poverty".

"Poverty
is almost equated with isolation in many places of the world. Poverty results
from the lack of access to markets, to emergency health services, access to
education, the ability to take advantage of government services and so on",
Sachs said. "What the mobile phone -- and more generally IT technology --
is ending is that kind of isolation in all its different varieties".

From 2005 to
2010, cell phone use tripled in the developing world to nearly 4 billion mobile
subscriptions, according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Nowhere was the growth faster than in Africa, which saw mobile use grow more
than 400% during that time frame, according to ITU. That means more money -- a
2006 University of Michigan study found that every 10% increase in cell phone
penetration grows the local economy by 0.6%.

The simple
ability to make a phone call has far-reaching economic consequences, Sachs
said. "Places where traditionally, people would
walk livestock for a week or two without knowing what kind of price they'll
fetch -- should they go to Khartoum, Nairobi or Port Saeed? Now they can call
ahead and find out where to get the best price", Sachs said.

The district of Los
Olivos, in the north of Lima, will become the first "digital
city" in Peru, and the second largest of its kind in South
America after Curitiba Brazil, with the
launch of the first classroom of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT).

A spokesman for the
local mayor told EFE that the ICT classroom, which is located in
Peru, in Kawachi School, was opened last week and "marks a new
era for Los Olivos district because it is the beginning of its
conversion into a digital city ".

The classroom has
been implemented with twenty computers and a video projector, all
connected to an interactive whiteboard.

For the full
implementation of this project, they have 90 km of Optical Fiber,
with the aim of connecting to 60,000 homes in Los Olivos with
schools, police stations, municipal offices, medical centers and
hospitals.

It also provides access to
the database of the district, "without interference, high
quality and speed in a sort of gigantic Intranet".

The ICT classroom
mark the beginning of the installation of 33 points of
interconnection, through Fiber Optics, with the database located in a
resort town prepared for the technological research, job training and
entrepreneurship.

It is planned that
the complex will be the centerpiece of the "Telematic District
Network ", a large data network capacity with computer servers,
similar to financial and telephone companies.

Various institutions
in Los Olivos are going to connect to the
Network gradually, which will let exchange information and share a
number of resources, in addition to providing high quality services
to its users", said the spokesman of EFE.

The Head of ICT at Rwanda
Development Board (RDB), Patrick Nyirishema, has said that the
establishment of a Carnegie Mellon University campus in Rwanda is a
big boost to the development of ICT in the country.

In an interview with The
New Times, he said that the introduction of the campus that will
focus on ICT courses is a very exciting development.

“The particular engagement we have
with the university is focused on ICT although it is a fully fledged
institution with many other disciplines back in the USA”, he said.

Carnegie Mellon, a top US
varsity, will establish and operate an academic program in Kigali,
initially offering a Master of Science in ICT program, starting from
next year.

With a history of
excellence in higher education and as a global leader in
technological innovation, Carnegie Mellon is the first U.S research
institution offering degrees in Africa with an in-country presence.

Nyirishima pointed out
that the whole vision is to bring in a world class type of a
university to fast track the process of scaling up the standard of
ICT education in the country.

“It will help us in achieving the
vision President Paul Kagame has set of making Rwanda an ICT hub in
the region”, he said.

He asserted that the
institution will bring in a very high level of expertise in some of
the priority areas within the ICT sector which will contribute
towards making Rwanda an investment destination for big international
companies.

While the new
Carnegie Mellon Rwanda program is open to students worldwide, the
program will primarily target students from the East African
Community with preference given to Rwandan citizens.

The Acting
Country Manager of the World Bank has said that lack of access to low price and
high quality telecommunications services is one of the factors that presently
limit the potential of Liberia to create jobs, expand production of goods and
services, and trade competitively with the rest of the world. Coleen Littlejohn
pointed out that poor telecommunications services in Liberia are the major
obstacle to the social and economic development of the country. The World Bank
Executive made these comments recently at the launch of the West Africa
Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (WARCIP-Liberia) Project.

The official
launch of the WARCIP-Liberia Project was held at the Golden Gate Hotel in
Paynesville, outside Monrovia.The
WARCIP-Liberia Project is as a result of a US$25.6 million loan given to the
Liberian government the World Bank

According to
Littlejohn, the lack of access to an international submarine cable, coupled
with the absence of national connectivity backbone has resulted in low
bandwidth and high price of Internet service, something which she said prevents
Liberia from benefiting from advanced Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) enabled applications.

She
indicated that the connection of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine
cable represents a unique opportunity for Liberia, which has missed out on
earlier opportunities to connect to existing global submarine fiber cable
systems.

"This
project proposes an integrated approach to improve connectivity in Liberia by
providing access to the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable and
creating an enabling environment and institutional strengthening to support for
private sector participation in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
infrastructure," she stated.

"The
Project recognizes that the creation of a competitive, enabling environment in
the sector is a prerequisite for affordable connectivity and ensuring an open
and non-discriminatory access to capacity. Results in many countries show that
this translates into improved connectivity and lower prices of communications
services" she said.

Speaking
further, she pointed out that the project will in the near future
"dramatically" bring down communication costs.

- Innovative on-line platform for cross-border mentoring developed with
Google

-Mentors benefit from a rich
intercultural exchange, mentoring skills, improved technological skills and
revitalized interest in their own career.

- The Foundation is seeking skilled professionals and entrepreneurs to
give inspiration and advice to pioneering businesswomen.

Many women across Africa,
South Asia and the Middle
East have the ideas and ambition needed to become successful
entrepreneurs but are held back by barriers such as lack of access to business
skills, technology, networks and finance.

In response, the Cherie Blair Foundation for
Women has developed an innovative solution that combines mentoring with
technology to offer cross-border support to women entrepreneurs in developing
and emerging markets. In collaboration with Google, the Foundation built a
virtual community for women entrepreneurs to support each other and receive
online mentoring and business advice.

The programme began with a 12-month pilot
phase to test the new online platform and determine best practice. Following a
positive independent evaluation, the Foundation is now continuing to expand its
reach in order to support increasing numbers of women around the globe.

Founder, Cherie Blair
says, "Our mentees are women with great entrepreneurial potential, and our
mentors give them a vital boost by providing them with the extra advice and
support they need".

Sarah Speake,
Strategic Marketing Director at Google, says, "This programme will make a
clear and tangible difference to the women it supports. I am thrilled that
Google has been able to help make this happen through our partnership with the
Cherie Blair Foundation".

The Nobel Peace
Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday to three campaigning women from
Africa and the Arab world in acknowledgment of their nonviolent role
in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The winners were
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf —
Africa’s first elected female president — her compatriot, peace
activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy
campaigner.

They were the first women
to win the prize since Kenya’s Wangari Maathai, who died last
month, was named as the laureate in 2004.

Most of the recipients in
the award’s 110-year history have been men and Friday’s decision
seemed designed to give impetus to the cause for women’s rights
around the world.

“We cannot achieve
democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same
opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of
society”, said the citation read by Thorbjorn Jagland, a former
Norwegian prime minister who heads the Oslo-based Nobel committee
that chooses the winner of the $1.5 million prize.

In a subsequent
interview, he described the prize as “a very important signal to
women all over the world”.

Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf
is nearing the end of a heated re-election campaign and Monrovia, the
Liberian capital, saw her opponents join a big rally before
Tuesday’s vote. Mr. Jagland said the election had not influenced
the committee’s decision, calling the ballot there a “domestic
consideration”. Analysts in Liberia have described the president’s
re-election prospects as uncertain, although Friday’s announcement
from Oslo could change that. But the Nobel committee’s decision
underscored the gap between local perceptions of her — it is not
hard to find critics of the president in Liberia — and the view
from abroad.

In Yemen on Friday,
Ms. Karman, 32, sat in a tent where she has been living since
February as part of the sit-in organized to press demands for change.
“This is the victory of our peaceful revolution”,
she said. “I am so happy and I give this award to all of the youth
and all of the women across the Arab world, in Egypt, in Tunisia”.

Equal Access
International (EA) works to include communities in matters of
national dialogue with the help of FrontlineSMS’ groundbreaking
technology. EA specializes in educating and empowering people in some
of the world’s most remote regions through media and community
mobilization. With millions of regular listeners, our media programs
leverage radio dramas and chat shows, mobile theatre, television
shows, listening discussion groups, leadership training and community
actions to foster positive change.

EA has been using
FrontlineSMS in Chad and Niger since late 2009. They produce six
radio programs in these two countries and, for each show, listeners
can send text messages to a dedicated telephone number, which is
toll-free in Niger. The radio stations receive messages from
thousands of listeners, some in response to questions posed on the
radio program and others sharing their views and commentary on the
programs. During an 18-month period 1,119 messages were received in
Chad and 2,330 messages were received in Niger.

In Chad, Equal
Access produces a youth radio show titled “Chabab Al Haye” (Youth
Alive) which uses a presenter-led chat show format to discuss
peaceful ways of addressing grievances, tolerance, livelihoods
information and problem solving. Listeners can send in feedback
through our FrontlineSMS system asking questions, such as this young
listener who texted:

“I lived for a
little while in the North, and I noticed that tribalism still exists
there. The young people from the North and South avoid relating to
one another. How do we get past this behavior?”

Questions and
comments like this one can be featured on this radio programs and
discussed, helping youth from all reaches of the country feel
included in the conversation.

Perhaps most
importantly, they use FrontlineSMS to create interaction with the
radio programs and include listener feedback in the programs, to show
listeners that they are being heard. In closed communities, or those
struggling with violence or intolerance, the act of engaging in an
interactive dialogue via a mass communications platform such as a
radio can help people feel engaged and included.

In Niger during the
pre-election period running up to the peaceful and democratic
transition from a military junta to an elected civilian
administration, radio listeners around the country were able to
express their views about positions and candidates through SMS
messages in response to the radio programs.
The messages contributed to a more open and inclusive debate because
audiences were able to connect to program producers directly through
a toll-free SMS message line.

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu,
Minister of Communication on Monday observed that government has made
giant strides in transforming the country into a modern
information-rich and knowledge based society in terms of Information,
Communication and Technology (ICT) development.

He said the benefits
of ICT could be applied to facilitate socio-economic development to
bring enormous benefits to Ghanaians. Government therefore,
remained committed to promote digital literacy in the country to
ensure that the people reap full benefits of ICT usage.

Mr. Iddrisu made the
observation when the Ministry of Communication took its turn on the
Meet-the-Press series organised by the Ministry of Information. It is
a platform that enables ministries and other public agencies to
inform the public on the strides made in governance.

Mr. Iddrisu said the
mandate of the Ministry is to build a people centred, inclusive and
development-oriented information and knowledge society where everyone
could create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge to
enable individuals and communities achieve their full potential of
promoting sustainable development.

“In this regard,
we are proud of the enormous growth in the ICT sector; and we have
made humble but significant strides to transform Ghana into a modern
information-rich and knowledge based society where the benefits of
ICT can be applied to facilitate socio-economic development”, he
added.

Mr. Iddrisu said the
communication sector this year witnessed significant growth and
transformation, which also expanded in scope as well as technological
advancement. This was recognized by the International
Telecommunication Union where the country had been touted as of the
fastest growing ICT industry in the developing world.

Mr. Iddrisu said
within the framework of government’s development agenda to provide
transparent and accountable governance, strong economy for real jobs,
investing in people and expanding infrastructure for growth, the
Ministry is situating ICT as prime enabler and facilitator to provide
the necessary tools for good governance.

The Digital
Cities’11 Conference at ITU Telecom World 2011 (Geneva,
Switzerland, 24-27 October) will focus on the trends shaping global
city development, and ask city mayors, leading urban developers and
experts in the provision of essential public services for their views
on the opportunities and solutions offered by information and
communications technologies (ICTs).

The conference, supported by
Alcatel-Lucent, will focus on how the public and private sectors can
come together to design and develop the next generation of urban
living. Participants will also address connected urban development
and how next-generation networks can enhance socio-economic
development, increase the health and well-being of urban citizens and
enable environmental sustainability.

Panel discussions and
workshops will include mayors from the world’s major cities,
together with digital innovators, utility experts, industry CEOs and
city planning and transport specialists. Top-level speakers and
participants include: Gabrielle Gauthey, EVP, Public Affairs,
Alcatel-Lucent; Kim Seang-tae, President, National Information
Society Agency, Advisor to the President of Korea; Wim Elfrink, Chief
Globalization Officer, Cisco; Suvi Linden, former Minister of
Communications, Finland and Special Envoy to the Broadband Commission
for Digital Development; Peter Pitsch, Director Communications
Policy, Intel Corporation; and Juan Sabines Guerrero, Governor of
Chiapas.

“Our planet will soon
be home to seven billion people. As cities demand more and more from
our industry and city dwellers account for half of the world’s
population, the time is right for a dedicated conference within the
ITU Telecom World event that drives high-level debate and generates
key insights into the connected and digital future of urban life”,
said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré.

“The Digital Cities
Conference is specifically designed to be the focal point for
informed and defining debate on the future of urban digital
development,” commented Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent, “Given
the pace at which people are embracing digital life, it is becoming
ever more crucial that the industry connects and integrates city
infrastructure and services with technologies that will help ensure
the sustainability of cities, and improve life, work and well-being
for their residents”.

Highlights of the Digital
Cities’11 Conference include plenary sessions examining areas such
as:

Collaboration in
fostering sustainable, next-generation city life, and the need for
cities to embrace new urban design, strong metropolitan governance,
and innovative infrastructure investment models.

The best ways to
optimize resources smartly, to increase quality of life for
citizens. How can citizens become better involved in designing and
scoping out the future of their own digital cities?

New application allows deaf, hard-of-hearing
and speech-disabled customers to make calls from virtually anywhere,
anytime on Android-powered devices.

Today announced the availability of Sprint Mobile IP
Relay, empowering thousands of users in the deaf and hard-of-hearing
communities and people with speech disabilities to communicate by
phone anywhere and anytime. Sprint Mobile IP Relay, the company’s
latest enhancement to its Sprint Relay’s IP portfolio, is a free
application that can be downloaded from the Android Market onto
select Android devices.

Features and capabilities:

Make and receive
relay-facilitated mobile calls on Sprint devices running on Android
OS 2.1 or higher

A unique 10-digit
number is required to access and use the Sprint® Mobile IP
application on Sprint Android devices. To register, go to
www.mysprintrelay.com.

“This is another
offer from Sprint Relay that breaks down communications barriers for
those who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities,”
said Mike Ellis, director-Sprint Relay Services. “With Mobile IP
Relay, users can have unlimited access to relay services wherever
their wireless device coverage is available”.

Ellis added that earlier
in the year, Sprint Relay introduced another unique offering for
Relay users called Sprint Relay ID -- a bundle of applications,
links, tips, icons, widgets and wallpapers on Sprint ID-capable
Android devices. The bundle includes voice mail transcripts, visual
and vibrating alerts and readable captions available in a single
download. The launch of Sprint Relay ID marked the first time a
wireless carrier developed multiple applications in one package for
the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.

For its innovation
and industry-leading customer service, Sprint Relay services were
recently lauded with third-party awards and endorsements. The Paisley
Group National Relay TTY Performance Index ranked Sprint Relay
highest in customer care and speed of service. Sprint Relay also
earned ABILITY Magazine’s Best Practices Award for its relay
service and its “spirit of inclusion, both in the workplace and in
the consumer marketplace”.

Sprint now provides
relay service to 32 states and the federal government, in addition to
New Zealand and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Sprint also provides
Captioned Telephone “CapTel” services to 31 states and the
federal government.

The classroom that was delivered to the community of Riohachawill allow
to deaf, blind and deafblind people access to Internet Services,
training in basic computer concepts and use of computers, as well as
intelligent machine of reading Braille telelupa and lines, promoting
their access, use and ownership of ICT and guaranteeing the right to
information and communication on equal terms. The ICT Ministry spent $
160 million for this project. The new classroom was presented on
Thursday 29 September.

The classrooms of
technology for people with sensory disabilities are part of the ICT
policy ownership developing by the ICT
Ministry and Surcoe. This initiative is included in the Technology
Plan “Vive Digital”, which aims to expand the use and
appropriation of the Internet in the country and move from 2.2
million to 8.8 million connections in 2014. This new room was
provided to the community of Riohacha on Thursday September 29 at the
Library Almirante Padilla.

"The opening of
this new room will allow the community of
Riohacha with sensory disabilities and their family access to
technology. Access to ICTs must be for everyone, to make technology
part of the life of Colombians”, said ICT Minister, Diego Molano
Vega.

The hall will provide free training in basic use of
computers, office tools and Internet browsing. Also, these rooms will
feature with equipments such as Braille printers that will enable
blind people to read texts and computer applications that will enable
users to listen to type in documents and texts on the Internet.

The delivery of this
new classroom is part of the project “Conectando
Sentidos” that seeks that the technology world will be within
people with sensory disabilities and their families, promoting social
inclusion and equal opportunities through the use of technology
Information and communications technology (ICT).

The ExxonMobil Foundation
today announced a $1.5 million grant for research into how mobile
phone technology can enhance women’s economic opportunities and
entrepreneurship in the developing world. The grant to the Cherie
Blair Foundation for Women will be highlighted at the 2011 Clinton
Global Initiative Annual Meeting.

The study, to be conducted in
Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indonesia, aims to
identify various mobile services that can help women entrepreneurs
enhance their businesses, and what barriers exist to expanding access
to these services.

“We know that mobile
technology has great potential for placing women in low-income
countries on a higher economic trajectory”, said Cherie Blair,
founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

“Mobile phone use
doesn't just help women earn more money, it can also bring great
benefits to businesses and therefore to the wider economy as well”.

Mobile phone services are
often cited as a significant tool in economic development. There are
300 million fewer female than male subscribers worldwide, and a woman
is 21 percent less likely to own a phone than a man in low- and
middle-income countries.

“Studies like this
will help us understand how technology can best support women in the
developing world", said Suzanne M. McCarron, president of the
ExxonMobil Foundation. “Success of women entrepreneurs is vital to
building strong communities. Expanding the use of mobile technology
for women will help raise living standards, leading to more
prosperity for them, their families and their countries”.

"Our research
shows that technology can be transformative for women, if we engage
them in the process", said Sarah Degnan Kambou, president of the
International Center for Research on Women. "This partnership
does that and will help take women entrepreneurs farther and faster,
as a result".

Who has access to information and who doesn’t makes a huge difference in the 21st Century. Those who have limited access to timely market information are facing problems identifying market opportunities and finding sellers or buyers.

This is especially true in agrarian economies such as in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan where more than half of the population lives in rural areas, with most working in the agricultural sector. Access to online market prices and information sharing are critical for sustainable development of agricultural production.

UNDP’s Aid for Trade project is supporting access to real time information for producers, processors, and suppliers in Batken (Kyrgyzstan) and in Khujand (Tajikistan) to improve market access, increase competitiveness and attract buyers. UNDP helped to introduce online systems SMS systems, radio stations and printed updates that share market prices and information on agriculture.

In Tajikistan, farmers and producers receive SMSs containing market prices during harvest time. In Kyrgyzstan, UNDP helped set up radio stations in major markets and a hotline. We wanted people working in remote areas to be able to access information, and we learned that information services have to be tailor made in order to work.

The web site in Tajikistan has had more than 45,000 visitors since it was made available in July 2010. In Kyrgyzstan, the web site in addition to radio stations and news flyers supported more than 1,000 rural producers to sell their products, and 3,500 farmers are regular users of the different products.

Considering the needs, the agricultural wealth and the overall potential in these two regions, information systems might not be the first choice of intervention for many people. However, it is important to realize that the ability to access real time information allows producers to make more informed choices, get better deals, and more importantly, link to other markets. If we manage to make these systems sustainable, ultimately they will be able to support self-development of the agricultural community.

More than 1500
people in the Ancash region will have
access to mobile services and the Internet through the program
“Comunicaciones de la Cuenca Ancash”, signed on 23 September
2011, between the Antamina Mining Fund and Telefonica.

To this end,
Telefonica will implement two mobile phone base stations, which will
benefit 11 towns of Yanacancha Mining Camp, among which are: Cambio
90, Vistoso, Ayash Huaripampa, Ayas Pichiu, San Cristóbal de Tambo,
Centro Pichiu, Huancayoc, Puca Puca, Huishllag, Cashapatac y Atash.
Also it will provide coverage to hospitals, police stations, medical
centers and institutions that benefit to local population.

Also, the Antamina mining
company through its association Antamina (Mining Fund) will provide
Mobile Internet to 30 schools which will have internet services for
five years.

Guillermo Checa,
Vice President of Business Segment of Telefonica, expressed great
satisfaction over the agreement that will provide telecommunications
access to more Peruvian in Ancash region. "In Telefónica, we
have been conducting several initiatives aimed at promoting digital
inclusion through telecommunications, helping to improve the quality
of life of most people and this is a sample of it", he said.

On September 21, 2011 it was a very special day for 47 children of the school "Chillogallo Pan y Miel", not only because they shared their knowledge with new information and communication technologies standards but also because they learned how to use the Internet without put on risk their safety.

After 11 hours, this school changed its appearance, with the adaptation of the Story "Little Red Riding Hood". Officials of the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Society taught children that "behind the net there are thousands of ravenous wolves, seeking information from children to hurt them" through the talk about "security children in the network".

For German Castro, professor of basic level of this school, the technology is advanced and can become a useful tool for the future of education. The Internet is not just chat, but is a huge library. The teacher said his job is to guide children to get access to useful sites, to increase their knowledge and not harm them.

In addition, they talked not only about network security, also children learned what is the new technology of digital television, that is a transmission system evolved, delivering benefits to citizens and that allows implementing educational programs and interactive scientific .

But how can we protect our children in the Net? * Children must be accompanied by a parent or a teacher when accessing the Internet * We recommend placing the computer in a public place in the house * Teaching our children to notify us when a foreign content appear when they want to open, or to download any content or game.

The Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Society with Telefonica Foundation together promotes educational programs, dynamic and interactive, through which children can learn about the proper use of ICTs and benefit from these powerful and versatile tools, which certainly increase their knowledge and strengthened educational quality processes.

Accra,
Ghana, 20-23 September 2011

In accordance
with its multi-year programme of work for 2010-2014, the Commission on the
Status of Women (CSW) will consider ‘The empowerment of rural women and their
role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges' as
its priority theme during its fifty-sixth session in 2012.

In order to
contribute to a fuller understanding of the issue and to assist the Commission
in its deliberations, the UN Women) in collaboration with the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) will convene an Expert
Group Meeting (EGM) on ‘Enabling rural women's economic empowerment:
institutions, opportunities and participation' from 20-23 September 2011 in
Accra, Ghana.

The EGM will
explore a wide range of strategies that can enhance the economic empowerment of
rural women, and will focus on the following critical areas:

The United Nations
must leverage the power of information and communications technology
(ICT) to the fullest in its response to political, economic and
environmental challenges and to improve the delivery of its services,
says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Addressing a meeting at UN
Headquarters on public-private partnership for ICT, Mr. Ban stressed
that the world body must make the fullest possible use of ICTs in
achieving its development goals and other important objectives.

“We already do a
great deal, but we know we can do more… much more”, he said.

The Secretary-General
noted that ICTs can help strengthen disaster risk reduction as well
as the UN’s response when disasters do happen. Other important
activities – from reporting on repression and human rights abuses
and monitoring ecosystems to delivering public services, especially
in health and education – can all be made more effective through
ICTs.

The UN itself can benefit
from development in this area, thereby heightening performance while
increasing accountability, he added.

Mr. Ban said that the UN
has made significant progress in using ICTs to improve the delivery
of its services since the establishment of the UN ICT strategy in
2009, and it was done largely within existing resources. The ICT
strategy is comprised of a vision, a management framework and three
strategic programmes.

“Yet the time has
now come when we need additional financial and other support if we
are to achieve truly high-impact and better results”, he stated,
adding that this is where the public-private partnership on ICT can
play a critical role.

“It can provide
sound strategic guidance as well as resources for leveraging ICT to
build a better world”, said Mr. Ban.

“At the same time,
I am convinced that your involvement will have a significant positive
impact for your own organizations. Contributing to global well-being
will further reinforce your position as socially responsible citizens
of the world, doing their part to advance the human condition”.

Gender equality matters in
its own right but is also smart economics: Countries that create
better opportunities and conditions for women and girls can raise
productivity, improve outcomes for children, make institutions more
representative, and advance development prospects for all, says a new
World Bank flagship report.

The World
Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development details
big strides in narrowing gender gaps but shows that disparities
remain in many areas. The worst disparity is the rate at which girls
and women die relative to men in developing countries: Globally,
excess female mortality after birth and “missing” girls at birth
account for an estimated 3.9 million women each year in low- and
middle-income countries. About two-fifths are never born due to a
preference for sons, a sixth die in early childhood, and over a third
die in their reproductive years. These losses are growing in
Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in countries hard-hit by HIV/AIDS.

“We
need to achieve gender equality”, said World Bank Group
President Robert B. Zoellick. “Over the past five years, the
World Bank Group has provided $65 billion to support girls’
education, women’s health, and women’s access to credit, land,
agricultural services, jobs, and infrastructure. This has been
important work, but it has not been enough or central enough to what
we do. Going forward, the World Bank Group will mainstream our
gender work and find other ways to move the agenda forward to capture
the full potential of half the world’s population”.

The report cites
examples of how countries could gain by addressing disparities
between men and women:

· Ensuring
equal access and treatment for women farmers would increase maize
yields by 11 to 16 percent in Malawi and by 17 percent in Ghana.

· Improving women’s
access to agricultural inputs in Burkina Faso would increase total
household agricultural production by about 6 percent, with no
additional resources—simply by reallocating resources such as
fertilizer and labor from men to women.

· The Food
and Agriculture Organization estimates that equal access to resources
for female farmers could increase agricultural output in developing
countries by as much as 2.5 to 4 percent.

· Eliminating
barriers that prevent women from working in certain occupations or
sectors would have similar positive effects, reducing the
productivity gap between male and female workers by one-third to
one-half and increasing output per worker by 3 to 25 percent across a
range of countries.

“Blocking women
and girls from getting the skills and earnings to succeed in a
globalized world is not only wrong, but also economically harmful,”
said Justin Yifu Lin, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior
Vice-President, Development Economics. “Sharing the fruits of
growth and globalization equally between men and women is essential
to meeting key development goals”.

A multilingual
project funded by the European Union (EU) today began its journey on
the Internet at www.poliglotti4.eu website
with the ambition to collect and disseminate best practice on
language policy and language teaching.

Poliglotti4.eu is an
initiative to promote multilingualism in Europe, the result of the
deliberations of the EU Civil Society Platform driven by the European
Commission in 2009.

This portal will
provide to policy makers, teachers,
students and civil society organizations a set of tools for
benchmarking and improvement of activities in the field of education
and learning, said in a statement the Multilingualism Observatory
(EUNIC). Specifically, collect and display information about
motivation and goals of multilingualism in various sectors of civil
society as well as on best practices and tools for development.

The project is aimed
at students and language teachers, social services and public and
civil society, as well as those responsible for the development of
multilingualism policy.

For now, the web
page navigation is possible in English and, later, it will be in
French and German, although public input through social networks can
ride in any language.

Under the guidelines
in the document Conpes 3670 from 2010 and the National Development
Plan 2010 - 2014, and in the developing of the strategies of "Plan
Vive Digital", the Ministry of Information and Communications
Technologies together with the Ministry of Education, have defined a
joint strategy where schools in the country will benefit with
connectivity, under different initiatives and with the support of
various organizations.

In this regard, as
part of the ICT Ministry's commitment to support the connectivity
primarily in the education sector, the
“Compartel” Program has assumed the responsibility to connect a
significant number of institutions and as a result they published the
draft of specifications for the Project Internet connectivity of
Public Institutions, which seeks to ensure connectivity service in
those public institutions that demand for support and have not been
connected through other strategies.

This project is
set up as a transition until the definition of the new scheme which
will host the program “Compartel 2012”, in coordination with
other sectors for the development of social telecommunication
projects to suit the needs of the country, the new technological
developments and the growing coverage of telecommunications networks.

To view the
documents that make up the draft specification for the Internet
Connectivity Project for Public Institutions, click here.

ITU research indicates that
targeting students may be the most effective way to increase Internet
use in developing countries. The Internet is only used by an around
21 per cent of the population in the developing world, compared with
almost 70 per cent in developed countries.

The Measuring the
Information Society 2011 report suggests that the main barriers to
Internet use are not always related to infrastructure and price.
Usage patterns show major differences related to education, gender,
income, age and geographical location of users (urban/rural). For
example, there is remarkably little difference in patterns of
Internet use among highly educated, high-income individuals across
the developing and developed worlds. People with higher educational
degrees use the Internet more than those with a lower level of
education, and in most countries more men than women are online.

Young people (below the age
of 25) are online more than older people, and there is a higher level
of Internet use among those currently in school compared with those
no longer studying. Assuming that people will continue using the
Internet once they have become accustomed to being online, those
currently enrolled at school or university are more likely to be
future Internet users, too. For young people all over the world,
social networking and user-created content like blogs have become key
drivers of Internet uptake.

Given that 46 per cent of the
population in developing countries is below the age of 25
(representing more than 2.5 billion people), the report suggests that
one of the most effective ways to increase Internet use in these
countries is by targeting the younger generation – for example
through connecting schools and other educational institutions, and
improving enrolment rates.

With broadband service becoming an
increasingly essential tool for participating in modern life, federal
policy makers are pursuing regulatory reforms that will fundamentally
refocus the government’s “Universal Service” programs and
related regulations to spur more broadband deployment and adoption -
a marked departure from the historical primacy of circuit switched
voice services.

These reforms promise to give community
anchor institutions, including schools and libraries, access to a
wider variety of affordable broadband service than ever before. The
changes also promise to expand the range of broadband services
eligible for support under the federal Schools and Libraries
Universal Service Support Mechanism (also known as the “e-Rate”).

At the same time, broadband service
providers and their customers - including schools - will face new
compliance challenges as the web of federal programs supporting
broadband infrastructure grows larger and more intertwined.

Today, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) has under consideration:

Multiple proposals -
chiefly including the America’s Broadband Connectivity (ABC) Plan,
proposed by large and midsize telecommunications companies, as well
as an alternative plan championed by Google, Skype, Sprint, Vonage,
and others - to transform the High-Cost Universal Service Support
Mechanisms to provide direct support for broadband facilities and
services, in accord with the blueprint outlined in the National
Broadband Plan. These proposals would create the Connect America
Fund (CAF), described last year in the National Broadband Plan.

A proposal to create
a Low-Income Broadband Support pilot program, which could include
support for deployment of network facilities and customer premises
equipment, provision of broadband service, and digital literacy
training to encourage sustainable broadband adoption.

Reforms to the Rural
Health Care Support Mechanism, which has struggled to fulfill its
promise since it was created. Complementary programs - such as
Health Information Technology (HIT) loans, offered through the joint
efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S.

In addition, the FCC will
be watching to see the results from the 2011 “Learning on the Go”
wireless pilot program for schools and libraries, which could expand
the range of mobile broadband services eligible for federal e-Rate
support as early as Funding Year 2013.

The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu
on Thursday began a $2 billion giveaway of free laptops to every
student in state-run schools and colleges over the next five years.

The scheme was an election promise
made by the local AIADMK party of former movie starlet J.
Jayalalithaa, which came to power in state polls in May. The plan
aims to provide laptops to nearly seven million students across the
state, including 900,000 in the first year.

Jayalalithaa's administration has
earmarked 10.2 billion rupees ($2.1 dollars) to fund the project, but
critics say the money would be better spent on social welfare
schemes.

A senior lawyer in the state
capital Chennai had petitioned the Supreme Court to impose a stay on
the laptop handout on the grounds that it amounted to electoral
"bribery" and a corrupt use of state funds. Speaking at
Thursday's launch, which was marked by an initial giveaway of 6,600
laptops purchased from Acer and Hewlett-Packard, Jayalalithaa hit out
at those who had sought to "demean" the scheme.

"The
sole aim is to make people economically independent", she said.
"No one should trivialise it".As well as laptops, the
government is distributing free electric fans, food mixers, goats and
cows to tens of thousands of impoverished families in villages across
Tamil Nadu.

In less than two years,
the South African AIDS-education project Young Africa Live is
engaging hundreds of thousands of young people in sensitive
discussions about love, sex and HIV/AIDS. Earlier this summer, the
project released findings from its “Youth Sex Survey”,
unprecedented in both size and content. The survey, conducted on the
mobile platform that is the centerpiece of Young Africa Live, pulls
back the curtain on what young South Africans think about crucial
issues affecting their sexual health.

The Young Africa Live survey
received more than 130,000 responses from the mobile platform’s
users, the majority of whom are between 16 and 24. Findings included
a high percentage (44 percent) of South African youth admitting they
are sexually active at the same time that they are significantly
concerned about HIV/AIDS – 81 percent of respondents indicated they
equate “not telling a sexual partner that you carry the virus”
with outright murder. In good news for the government’s promotion
of circumcision as part of an overall HIV prevention program, a huge
number of females – 78 percent -- stated that they prefer a
circumcised partner.

Young Africa Live
included some superficial questions in the poll, like whether guys
and girls can be “just friends”. Placing serious and entertaining
content side by side is the content formula Young Africa Live employs
across its mobile platform – a combination that has proved
successful for building an audience of more than 400,00 active users.

Young Africa Live’s
founding organization, the Praekelt Foundation, didn’t want to
brand the project as an “AIDS portal”. They avoided explicitly
describing the platform as related to AIDS because of the stigma
associated with the disease and the fact that many South Africans,
particularly those who do not know their HIV-status, may not identify
with that label. “Our approach is not to preach, but to allow
discussion, dialogue and community support”, says Marcha Neethling,
Head of Operations for Praekelt.

The concept for Young
Africa Live evolved from the recognition that South African youth are
becoming avid users of mobile portals like Vodafone Live and MTNPlay.
The Johannesburg-based Praekelt Foundation, which leverages mobile
technology to improve the “health and well-being of people living
in poverty”, was looking for a way to educate young South Africans
about HIV/AIDS. According to Neethling, they saw an opportunity
in the fact that millions of young people use these mobile portals to
chat, download music, read up on celebrity and sports news,
participate in competitions, and win prizes.

As growing numbers of
women enter the economic mainstream, they will have a profound effect
on global business.

A huge and fast-growing group of people
are poised to take their place in the economic mainstream over the
next decade, as producers, consumers, employees, and entrepreneurs.
This group’s impact on the global economy will be at least as
significant as that of China and India’s billion-plus populations.
But its members have not yet attracted the level of attention they
deserve.

If China and India
each represent 1 billion emerging participants in the global
marketplace, then this “third billion” is made up of women, in
both developing and industrialized nations, whose economic lives have
previously been stunted, underleveraged, or suppressed. These women,
who have been living or contributing at a subsistence level, are now
entering the mainstream for the first time. They estimate that about
870 million of them will do so by 2020, with the number conceivably
passing 1 billion during the following decade. Their presence as
economic actors will be widely felt, because they have long been
overrepresented in the ranks of subsistence agriculture and other
resource-based forms of work. As they move into knowledge work, in
domains ranging from manufacturing to medicine to education to
information technology, their sheer numbers will hasten the
integration of the regions where they live into the larger economy.

To date, the potential of
women as economic players has been unrealized. The reasons became
evident recently in a Booz & Company analysis of data from the
International Labour Organization (ILO), a United Nations constituent
that tracks global workforce statistics. Globally, many women
could be considered “not prepared” (lacking sufficient education,
usually defined as secondary school); others are “not enabled”
(lacking support from families and communities); and a significant
number are both. The specific characteristics of these two major
constraints vary widely, according to local social, cultural, and
economic conditions. But as the constraints are alleviated —
through increased migration to cities, the expansion of educational
opportunities, changes in local laws and cultural norms, and
investments in infrastructures that support greater workforce
participation — the Third Billion’s movement into the middle
class will accelerate. The pattern of this emergence will probably
shift from a graduated incline to a graph that looks more like a
hockey stick.

Dr. David Perez
Taveras, says that developing countries will not be successful in the
global economy if they do not incorporate ICT into their production
system.

The chairman
of the board of the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel),
Dr. David Perez Taveras, said that "the digital gap leads to
greater social and economic gap" and argued that for this
reason, the developed technologies have been incorporated Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) in their production systems and
invest significant resources (public and private) to promote this
sector.

"It
is clear that developing countries cannot succeed in a global economy
if we do not incorporate the use of ICT in our nation strategy",
stressed the official. Perez Taveras said that a country without
a presence on the Internet, with hotels and other businesses do not
have a good platform for connectivity and web presence and will have
problems in their growth and in their integration into the globalized
world.

"We need to continue improving the ICT
infrastructure, but more important is that the country incorporates
the intensive use of ICT: incorporating the production value chain
(supplier-producer relationship, vendor-consumer e-commerce) and
follow developing e-Government", he said.

Also he
considered necessary to integrate the promotion of telework, the use
of digital signatures, improving cyber security and data protection,
impact on reducing costs and tariffs of telecommunications services
to encourage the use and maintaining international quality standards.

Mr. Perez Taveras explained that the strategy to develop
broadband and cited three main points of this approach, "first,
to promote infrastructure growth; second to promote the development
of new technologies, products, applications and services; and third,
to promote competition in the provision of services ".

He stressed that now
the Dominican Republic's objective "is
to expand the use of the Internet and make the high-speed coverage
service available to the entire population, with more bandwidth at
affordable prices".

This Saturday
September 10th, it was introduced the panel
of experts from the TV show 'Vive Digital' from the ICT Ministry,
which are transmitted every Saturday by the Institutional tv Channel.

In this issue,
teachers from remote areas of Colombia shared with viewers all the
experiences that they had with their students since they are using
the information and communications technologies as educational tools.

This time during the
program “Vive Digital”, panel of experts, led by the ICT
Minister, Diego Molano, they talked about the appropriation of ICT in
the education sector. As invited experts two teachers accompanied
him: Ana Maria Muchavisoy from Sibundoy, Putumayo and Carlos Andres
Romero from Magangué, Bolívar.

Also the following
teachers participated via Skype: Emiro
Pérez de Corozal, Sucre, Nayibe Rangel de Tame, Arauca, Andrés
Ladino from the Community of Macedonia, Amazon, and Porras Esnith y
Danny Esther Ayala from Quibdó, Chocó.

During the half
hour, teachers talked about the impact that the appropriation of ICT
had in the education provided to children and youth in schools with
limited resources. For his part, the Minister Diego Molano presented
the progress of “Computers for Schools” program, which has helped
to reduce the dropout, to improve educational quality and increase
accessibility to higher education in Colombia.

According to recent
study made by the University of Los Andes, the program “Computers
for Schools” was able to reduce by 4% the attrition in the schools
were they are working for more than three years. In relation to the
quality of education, it helped to improve the test results of the
State (ICFES), increasing by 2.1% the score for students who had 8
years of education in a school benefited from the program. The study
also found that graduates from schools benefited of “Computers for
Schools” program, increase in 12.7% in their probability of
entering to higher education, completing 8 years in an institution
equipped with computers.

Consultative meeting of the
Broadband Commission forDigital Development throws
spotlight on young innovators and debates strategies for getting Africa online.

Broadband
commissioners and interested representatives of governments, private sector and
civil society met in Rwanda’s capital Kigali this week to focus on challenges,
priorities and strategies that can help get the African continent wired to
high-speed networks.

The
meeting, which took place on 8-9 September, was held at the invitation of the
President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who Co-Chairs the Broadband Commission for Digital Development with Carlos Slim Helú, Honorary Chairman of
Grupo Carso. President Kagame is a staunch champion of the transformational
power of technology, and has prioritized the construction of information and
technology (ICT) networks as part of his national rebuilding programme. The
Commission is co-vice chaired by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré, and
UNESCO Director-General, Ms Irina Bokova.

The
meeting’s first day focused on the role of youth in defining new ICT services
and driving take-up. In a continent where over half the population is yet to
reach adulthood, Rwanda has an exceptionally young population, with 42% of
people under the age of 15.

“African
youth possesses the energy, passion and dedication to use these technologies to
address global challenges and truly benefit from ICTs. Our duty as leaders is
to build the right environment and promote the necessary investments to allow
them to fulfil their potential. Let´s not wait another century to recognize
that broadband was another missed opportunity for Africa”,
highlighted President Paul Kagame.

Two
High-level Round Table debates looked at the policies needed to help ensure
African youth gain access to online services such as education, healthcare, and
considered how government and industry can support strategies to encourage
youth entrepreneurship.

Participants
included Max Ahoueke, Minister of Communications and New Technologies, Benin;
Clotilde Nizigama, Minister for Finance, Economy, Cooperation and Development,
Burundi; Brahima Sanou, Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU; as
well as members of the Broadband Commission, such as Indrajit Banerjee,
Director of the Information Society Division of UNESCO; Cheik Sidi Diarra,
Under Secretary-General, UN Special Adviser on Africa and High Representative
for Least Developed Countries; Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Special Adviser to the
UN Secretary-General for the Millennium Development Goals;Sunil Bharti Mittal,
Chairman, Bharti Airtel; and musician Youssou N’Dour, among others.

Speaking
at the opening of the Youth session, Dr Hamadoun Touré told participants,
including 135 young students from Kigali’s leading tertiary education
institutions, as well as from other neighbouring countries, that broadband is
the single most powerful tool available to accelerate progress towards
achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and to drive social and economic
development.

South Korean electronics maker
Samsung has launched a solar powered laptop in the Kenyan market with the
capacity to run for 15 hours, nearly double the seven to eight hours lasting
power of rivals.

Korean electronics giant Samsung
has launched a solar powered laptop in the Kenyan market targeting thousands of
potential consumers currently locked out of the computer revolution by lack of
electricity.

Kenya, with a large rural
population that is not connected to the national power grid, is among the few
countries Samsung picked for the global launch that began last week.

The Samsung Netbook NC215S lap
top is priced at Sh35,000 and is also targeting consumers who are connected to
the national electricity grid but suffer erratic power supply. The
solar-charged laptop is loaded with a front cover panel that captures energy
from the sun and automatically recharges the battery. When fully charged, the
lap top can run for up 15 hours – nearly double the capacity of its closest
competitors that have seven or eight hours stand-by capability.

“With
Netbook NC 215S Samsung is demonstrating its capacity to bring to the consumers
technology that satisfies their needs and takes care of the environment”, said
Samsung Electronics East Africa Business Leader Robert Ngeru.

The Korean
firm is building consumer electronics and mobile technology for sub-Sahara
Africa where it set a $10 billion revenue target by 2015. Samsung’s sub-Saharan
Africa market is currently worth $1.23 billion.

Launch of
the Netbook NC 215S comes as Kenya’s four mobile telecoms firms, Safaricom,
Airtel, Telkom’s Kenya Orange and Essar’s Yu have intensified their activities
in the data market and are looking for affordable internet enabled devices such
as laptops and mobile phone handsets to expand the number of data users.

Telefonica del Peru
announced the launch of the project Wayra, a regional initiative
which main objective is to identify talent
in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and
promoting its development through a comprehensive support model, and
the funding to turn their idea into reality.

Support finance and
technology. Each elected project will receive between US$ 30 000 and
US$ 70 000.

Alvaro Valdez,
Director of Communications of Telefonica, said that he already
started receiving proposals. "The 10 Peruvian projects will be
selected during the wayra week to be held in late October or early
November. The winners will receive a contribution of US$ 30 000 and
US$ 70 000 per project at an early stage and technology platforms to
make it happen", said the executive. For more information see:
http://wayra.org/

There
is not necessary to spend long in many African agricultural markets
to realize the need for better information. Farmers lack prices,
traders need transport and new contacts, projects and governments
need a better way to reach out to people, businesses lack real-time
updates on their stock and the value of their harvests.

In
this installment of Mobile Message, Sarah Bartlett – Director of
Communications and Research at Esoko - explains how African
technology is being used to power agricultural markets across Africa,
filling an ‘information void’ for local farmers in the process.

Mobile
Message is a series of blog posts about how mobile phones are being
used throughout the world to improve, enrich, and empower billions of
lives.

Standing
in the heart of his pineapple farm in the Central Region of Ghana,
Ali Morrison, gripping two mobile phones, tells the story of his most
recent sale. Traders came to him offering just 0.20 Ghana cedis for
each pineapple. That’s about 13 US cents. This time around he and
his business partner, Isaac Assan, had their mobiles on hand and did
a quick SMS price request to Esoko. He sent
in the word “pineapple”. He received a list of prices covering
the major markets in Ghana.

In
the past, farmers like Ali and Isaac have had no choice but to
blindly accept the prices offered by traders. But the recent and
sudden ability to refer to current prices across the country disrupts
that whole dynamic. It gives farmers confidence that they didn’t
have before, and it takes away the opportunity for traders to lie
about prices in faraway markets. Knowing the trader would resell in
the capital city’s market for 0.80 cedis each, Ali wouldn’t budge
until he got 0.40 cedis. He doubled his profits that week, making 400
Ghana cedis instead of 200. That’s US$165 more. And just for the
price of a text message.

Seeing
Ali access current prices – like a stock trader accessing Reuters –
shows just how powerful information itself can be. Farmers are
business people too. But they can’t do good business if they don’t
have information. Ali’s story about using Esoko’s SMS prices to
increase revenues is not the only one we’ve heard recently. Mobile
technology is just beginning to take center stage here, and it’s
remarkable to watch.

About 2 000 equipments, including monitors, CPUs, keyboards and mousses received
the program Computers for Education of the Ministry of Information and
Communications Technologies from the mobile phone company Comcel.

The first computers donated by the company were delivered last Thursday
to rural schools of Rio Negro, located 8 kilometers from the urban area of
Fomeque in Cundinamarca, in a ceremony attended by the Vice Minister for ICT,
María Carolina Hoyos Turbay, the Executive Director of Computers for Schools,
Martha Castellanos and the Manager of Marketing and Communications of the
multinational, Diego Hernández de Alba.

In 2011, Comcel has donated technology equipment among 1944 notebooks,
monitors, CPU, printer, keyboard and mouse. In the last three years, the
communications sector has been one of the most dynamic in donations, companies
like Telefonica, EPM, Telmex, Emcali, among others, are counted as the greatest
allies of the social program.

Computers for Schools has provided the educational centers of the
municipality of Fomeque 165 computers, benefiting to student population, close
to 2 000 young people. Also, 300 teachers have been trained in the use of
technology.

For the Director of the institution Ana Cecilia Acosta Ávila, this is an
important benefit that will help improve the quality of education, "it is
the opportunity to involve children in the world of technology, before it was a
utopia to believe that computers will reach this area", she said.

Computers for Schools has reached 116 municipalities in Cundinamarca,
especially in rural areas where they benefited about 400 000 students of 2 222
schools. Several municipalities of this department are on the list to receive
replacement equipment that they lost as a result of the rainy season.

In total 6 million children across the
country, from the poorest strata of the population, are among those benefiting
from this program that in 2011 will deliver 89 000 terminals to educational centers,
cultural centers and libraries in Colombia.

Remote parts of Kenya have
trouble attracting professional teachers. Some schools are using
computers to compensate for the lack of human instructors. Despite
the obstacles digital learning brings with it, the schools are
pleased with the results.

Kenya’s digital learning
experiment is expanding, with both the government and private sector
championing its adoption. Digital learning – academic instruction
using a computer – is often considered an advantage when distance
is an obstacle to education. Schools in the drought-ravaged North
Eastern Province are now deploying computers to cope not with
distance, but an acute shortage of teachers.

Schools in northeastern
Kenya often have trouble attracting teachers because of the harsh
living conditions, poor infrastructure and constant attacks from
Ethiopian militia groups. Most schools in the region, which is the
least-developed part of Kenya, record dismal academic performances
and are estimated to have a paltry literacy rate of 8.5 percent.

Given the lack of teachers,
high illiteracy and poverty levels in this region, advocates of
digital learning say the computers are filling a crucial educational
gap. Take, for instance, Sakaba High School in Mandera West District,
which has a teacher shortage. Sakaba’s principal, Shabure Haji,
believes digital learning is a boon for his students.

“With computers,
students are able to use the Kenya Institute of Education digital
content”, said Haji. “Students are therefore able to learn and
access vital information even in the absence of a teacher”. The
school is currently awaiting the arrival of 11 computers the
government is giving it as part of an economic stimulus plan. Until
then, Sakaba’s 300 students have to scramble for time on the
existing 22 computers.

Thousands of miles
away, computers are helping educate the students at Turkana Girls
Secondary School, located in the Turkana region which has been
severely affected by drought. The principal of
Turkana, Sister Florence Nabwire, agrees that computers hold the key
to addressing the shortage of teachers.

A drop in the price of mobile
handsets and the arrival of the fiber optic network in Zimbabwe has
caused an enormous expansion in the use of mobile phones. With the
launch of mobile broadband services, Zimbabwe is undergoing dramatic
changes in how people communicate and do business.

The rapid adoption of
technology is redefining the way people here communicate, especially
the young and technologically savvy. A combination of factors,
including growth in mobile telephone use and the installation of a
fiber-optic network, is shaping a new way of engagement and
connectedness. Mobile phones are providing Zimbabwe with an
opportunity to leapfrog development stages in the country, and many
Zimbabweans’ first experience of the internet will be through the
mobile phone.

To illustrate the
trend, the number of mobile phone subscribers in Zimbabwe tripled
from less than 2 million at the end of 2008 to reach 6.9 million in
2010, according to growth partnership company Frost & Sullivan.
Currently, the mobile penetration rate is 54 percent. Despite the
country’s massive unemployment rates and low incomes, analysts
expect the growth in mobile technology to continue, reaching more
than 13 million subscribers by 2015.

Unlike a decade ago, today it
is very easy to secure a mobile phone and a SIM-card –-- prices
have fallen drastically. Mobile phones used to be a preserve of the
rich elite, but now more low-income Zimbabweans, in both rural and
urban areas, have access to them. The arrival of cheap, Chinese-made
products, such as G-Tide, have taken Zimbabwe by storm as mobile
users snap them up for half the price of leading brands like Nokia
and Samsung.

Mobile driving economic
growth

The overall growth in mobile
technology has substantially contributed revenue to Zimbabwe’s
telecommunications sector; the mobile communications market earned a
total of $372.2 million in 2009, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Mobile operators have traditionally targeted urban areas, but as
urban markets become saturated, the next generation of mobile phone
users will increasingly be rural.

“Mobile operators are the
largest contributors to telecommunications revenues in Zimbabwe,”
said Protea Hirschel, a Frost & Sullivan ICT industry analyst, in
a statement.

Using mobile technology for
development?

While there's growth in
the technological infrastructure and use of mobile phones, innovation
in the area of value-added services for mobile phones is still
scarce. Unlike in other parts of the continent, there has been very
little progress in using mobile technology to enhance banking,
farming, health care provision, or environmental protection among
other possible uses. One notable exception, though, comes from
Kubatana.net, a grassroots organization, which has been pioneering
the use of mobile technology for citizen journalism through its
“Freedom Fone” project.

Admire Bio has the reassured presence of a successful businesswoman, with an edge that reveals she is still hungry for more. Bio, 28, a single mother living with her parents, set up her first internet cafe in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, only a year ago. She has expanded with two more branches, and plans to go national if she can secure a bank loan.

"My biggest motivation is challenging men," she says, "to [get women to] say: 'Yes! I can be successful without you'".

But things aren't easy. "Men make you dependent", says Bio. "Women only get loans with collateral from male relatives. My fiance offered his land. Worse, it's common to be pressured into sex by bank staff, if there isn't a man's backing, when women apply for loans. I'm angry women can't succeed alone".

The swell of internet users in her cafe tells Bio she is on a winning road. Access to the internet and computer literacy is an area of much needed growth and investment. Only around 0.3% of the population are described as internet users (pdf), while fibre-optic broadband will not arrive until next year. Bio offers women evening computer courses "to make them stronger".

Meanwhile, mobile phones are ubiquitous, in urban areas at least, with around 26% of people owning one (pdf). In the absence of widespread internet access, mobiles have been seen as something of a panacea for development in Africa.

Kenya's M-Pesa money-transfer is hailed by technology gurus and development experts alike as an example of how poverty can be bypassed and development hastened. However, "banking the unbanked" has been questioned by some (pdf), as mobile money often caters for already affluent groups.

M-Pesa's success inspired Sheka Forna back to his homeland, Sierra Leone, to start Splash. Since it launched in 2009, Splash has convinced around 100,000 people to forsake real money for the virtual kind, effectively using their SIM cards as bank accounts.

As part of the National Agenda of strategic sectors, Chapter Manabi,
the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Society, in coordination with
the National Telecommunications Corporation CNT EP, delivered four new Centers
Integrated Services (CIS) in the cantons of Manta, Chone, Flavio Alfaro and
Tosagua of the Province of Manabi, in order to provide quality
telecommunications services to citizens of the province.

The official inauguration of these CIS were attended by
the Minister Coordinator of Strategic Sectors, Jorge Glas, Minister of
Telecommunication and Information Society, Mr. Jaime Ruiz Guerrero, Regional
Manager of the National Telecommunications Corporation , Mr. Waldemar Pacheco, provincial authorities,
local and general population.

With the implementation of
CIS Manta, 27 757 fixed telephone subscribers will be benefited and 3 952
Internet users from the cantons of Manta,
Montecristi and Jaramijó. With the CIS of Chone 14 286 fixed telephony customers will
be benefited and 2 048 Internet users in the cantons of Chone, El Carmen,
Tosagua, Calceta and Junin are the beneficiaries. With CIS of Flavio Alfaro 573 fixed telephone subscribers
and 128 Internet users have access to fixed and mobile telecommunications services.

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